THE CRYSTAL PRISON - Softcover

Robin Jarvis worked in television and advertising before becoming a full-time author and illustrator. His first book, The Dark Portal, was short-listed for the 1989 Smarties Book Prize in England. Mr. Jarvis currently lives in London.

Gr 5-8-In this sequel to The Dark Portal (SeaStar, 2000), a young mouse named Oswald falls ill, and the powerful squirrel Starwife decrees that he can only be healed if his friend Audrey accompanies a formerly evil but now pitiful rat named Madame Akkikuyu to the countryside. In the country, a bucolic existence is threatened by an evil spirit who uses Akkikuyu to gain power and wreak havoc on the mice who live there. Although this book stands on its own, readers who aren't familiar with the first volume might become impatient with the first section, which introduces a multitude of characters and moves slowly, impeded by old-fashioned, florid prose. The pace picks up in the countryside, where an ever-hungry owl and the mysterious spirit bring menace and tragedy to the close-knit community of field mice who live there, and the final chapters are breathtakingly thrilling. Some literal-minded readers may wonder how a mouse could stride or possess a waist and long flowing hair, but fans of Brian Jacques's "Redwall" series (Philomel) and Avi's "Tales from Dimwood Forest" series (HarperCollins) will likely relish this tale.

Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library

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